RE: Viruses

[Nathan Clemons <nathan windsofstorm net>]

On Tue, 6 Jul 1999, Roger Vaughn wrote:

> Excellent, well-considered reply!
> 
> Perhaps the offending gentleman would like to consider that most virus
> traffic originated on UNIX-based systems many years ago, long before Windows
> became popular.  Until recently, in fact, the most damaging virii, worms,
> call them what you will, attacked internet mail (traditionally served by
> UNIX boxes) and UNIX systems in general.  Recall the Morris worm which
> brought the 'net to its knees by overloading every system it could reach.
> Root access was not necessary - the worm merely spawned itself mercilessly
> until processors could handle no more.
> 

Virii and worms are two traditionally different things... The worm spread
by actively making connections through every network interface the
machines had. Virii spread by contact, in a more passive manner. They save
their energy for the destructive phase, if there is one. To date I know of
no UNIX viruses (this could be a lack of education on my part, I admit). I
know that they have been affected via worms and exploits (particularly
buffer over/underruns). AFAIK, it's only recently that mailboxes have been
used to transmit virii, with the advent of Melissa, Happy99, etc.

> Windows is the more popular target currently only because of its
> proliferation and the pure fun of MS bashing.  Expect the *serious* virus
> coders to go after Linux soon.  (And consider that Linux is a much simpler
> target since it is more highly standardized the traditional UNIXes and runs
> on limited set of hardware.)
> 

Uh, limited set of hardware? Which distribution have you been limiting
yourself to? Linux works on Sparcs, Alphas, Macs, Intel/PCs, and several
other variants like MIPS based machines. I don't really see this as a
"limited" hardware selection.

I would also daresay that it is not more highly standardized that other
Unices, or else the whole push behing the LSB (Linux Standards Base) would
not have needed to occur. And if software developers (people who spend
time writing USEfull applications as opposed to virus creators) have
problems working between distributions of Linux, I would daresay that will
currently be the case for virus authors as well.

Once the LSB is a more supported and integrated piece of the Linux
community, I will concede this point.

> Perhaps the gentleman would also like to consider that not everyone thinks
> the way he does.  Virus coders *do* in fact go in for wanton data
> destruction for the pure thrill of it.
> 
> rog
> 


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Nathan P. Clemons                       "Peace favor your code."
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